Report: California Utilities Lead the Nation in Solar Energy

Two California utilities—Southern California Edison (SCE) and
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)—lead the nation in terms of
the amount of solar energy integrated into their energy mix, according
to the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). SEPA's top ten
rankings of solar-integrated utilities, released on July 24, found that
SCE leads in terms of both its total solar electric capacity and in
its solar capacity per customer, while PG&E leads in the same
categories for solar power systems installed on the customer side of
the meter. The SEPA report does not reveal actual capacity figures due
to "privacy concerns," but one reason that SCE leads the nation is
that it buys power from nine large concentrating solar thermal power
plants in the Mojave Desert, which have a combined generating capacity
of about 350 megawatts.

When the list is divided into investor-owned utilities and public
power utilities, another California utility leads the list of public
utilities with the most total solar capacity, namely, the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power. The Los Angeles utility also has the
most customer-located solar power of any public utility. California's
dominance of solar power is not total, however, as the Kauai Island
Utility Cooperative in Hawaii leads the public utilities in terms of
solar capacity per customer, both overall and for customer-owned
systems. And with plans for large solar power systems in such places
as Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, SEPA expects the
leaders of its top ten rankings to shift in the future. Along with
Hawaii, utilities in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey,
New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin are currently on SEPA's top
ten lists, and with aggressive state policies and incentives, a number
of utilities in these states could rise to the top in the future. See
the SEPA press release (PDF 88 KB) and full report (PDF 980 KB).
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